best dog food for dogs prone to kidney stones
Homemade Dog Food for Kidney Stones (Tips and Tricks)
In dogs, kidney stones or Nephrolithiasis is a medical condition that is caused when crystals are formed and lodged in the kidney or urinary tract. The kidneys are essential organs in our dogs that help eliminate toxins from the body.
They are responsible for the production of urine which is, undoubtedly one of the most critical functions of the kidneys. If the kidneys fail to produce an adequate amount of urine, your dogs health can be compromised.
These stones are sometimes formed of a compound called calcium oxalate. They form a urolith or stone that is difficult to prevent. As a pet parent myself, I have realized that the best way to be mindful of my dogs needs is that dogs are actually present and observant of their behavior and body language. Kidney stones are actually quite uncomfortable.
You will be able to pick up on the signs and symptoms by being mindful of your dog. Preventing and treating this condition may be best handled with the help of homemade dog food for kidney stones.
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Symptoms of Kidney Stone in Dogs
Kidney stones are a painful condition in your dog that prohibits urine from leaving the body. However, suppose the kidney stone is not preventing the flow of urine. In that case, it can be left untreated but under close observation.
But, in the case of large stones that obstruct normal blood flow, you have to be careful. Large stones have to be treated almost immediately because they are extremely painful. You will observe several symptoms on your dog, which will let you know that it is time to visit the vet.
Some of these symptoms include extreme abdominal pain, vomiting, abdominal discomfort, swelling in the kidney, blood present in urine.
Along with kidney pain, change in urination frequency, weight loss, lethargy, poor appetite, and a general deterioration in energy level.
A diagnosis of kidney stones is a complicated process that considers various factors and requires a plethora of testing. However, along with medical solutions, a homemade meal and dog treats for calcium oxalate stones are equally important.
Dietary changes are vital for treating a dog with kidney stones. This is a life-threatening situation that has to be dealt with carefully as a dog owner.
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Homemade urinary diet for dogs: What you should give?
According to a study, the occurrence of lower urinary tract stones is higher in dogs than in humans. One of the best ways to treat kidney stones in dogs is with the help of dietary regulations. Good homemade dog food for kidney stones can make the difference between a healthy and a struggling dog.
Here are some of the things that you should consider including in the diet of your furry friend, who is suffering from kidney disease:
- Hydration of the dog is critical because it helps dilute the urine. Make sure that your dog drinks fresh water, which is changed regularly.
- If your dog suffers from kidney disease, ensure that the homemade diet has lower oxalate levels. Consider including food like white rice, peeled apples, and fish.
- You can give your dog boiled vegetables, and theres a theres to reduce the oxalate level of the vegetables. Drain away the water as much as you can before you serve the boiled food to your dog. This brings down the level of oxalate in the food.
- You may also include root vegetables such as potatoes, carrots, and parsnips in the homemade dog food for kidney stones because they contain low amounts of purine.
- Eggs can also be given.
- Another great thing to offer to a dog with kidney disease is cranberry. Cranberries play a significant role in flushing out bacteria from the urinary system, so the chances of new infections are lowered to a great extent.
- Also, consider including marshmallow roots in your dogs diet if the pet is suffering from kidney stones. Marshmellow roots are great at healing internal membranes that may be affected by kidney stones. They are also very good at reducing irritation.
- Remember to give your pets a fresh diet if they suffer from kidney stones.
Homemade dog food for kidney stones: What you should avoid?
When your dog has kidney stones, one of your primary concerns should exclude those foods that might aggravate their problems.
- Foods like sweet potatoes, spinach, brown rice, and organ meat should be avoided because they contain oxalate in large quantities.
- Reduce the salt content in your dogs food, cut the intake of dietary sodium is brought down.
Types of kidney stones and management of homemade urinary diet for dogs
Kidney stones in dogs may be of various forms: struvite, urate, and calcium oxalate. Depending on the type of stone infecting your dogs urinary tract, a healthy meal needs to be planned.
In the case of struvite stones, they can be dissolved entirely just with the help of a special diet. Encourage your dog to drink a good amount of water regularly, which dissolves the stones. Besides, the consumption of proteins and minerals has to be controlled to change the acidity in urine.
On the other hand, for calcium oxalate stones, they are generally more aggressive. They cannot be dissolved just with the help of homemade dog food for calcium oxalate stones. These stones are usually formed due to a higher concentration of calcium or oxalate in the bloodstream.
However, a diet can be designed to reduce the risk of calcium oxalate stones in dogs.
Finally, urate stones are generally caused due to some genetic predisposition and are related to liver diseases. These stones are made from a compound called purine.
Food high in purine includes seafood, fish, meat, and organs like the liver and heart. These stones can be dissolved by providing your dog with a low purine diet and by treating liver disease in the first place.
When providing a homemade urinary diet for dogs, it is important to contact your vet and consult him before choosing a diet. The dietary regulations have to be followed very closely to restore the health and wellbeing of your dog.
Thanks for the blog graphics:Canva.com
Thanks for the blog graphics:Canva.com
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What to Feed a Dog With Bladder Stones
Bladder stones develop when substances that are normally dissolved in urine form crystals that link, and over time combine to form one or more stones. They can become so big that they cant pass through the dogs urethra, which traps them in the bladder.
Different types of bladder stones require different treatments, and unfortunately, once a dog has had bladder stones, theres a good chance they could come back, especially if no preventive measures are in place.
Diet can play a big role in the treatment and prevention of bladder stones. Heres what you need to know about feeding a dog with bladder stones.
Can You Use Food to Treat Dogs With Bladder Stones?
Some bladder stones can be dissolved using a special prescription food or medicine. When you create the right conditions in the urine, the stones gradually dissolve.
Other bladder stones have to be physically removed, either through surgery or techniques like lithotripsy (using sound waves or a laser to break stones into small pieces) or urohydropropulsion (placing a special catheter into the bladder to flush out small stones).
Your veterinarian can recommend the best treatment for your dogs bladder stones based on:
Treatment Plans Based on Type of Bladder Stone
Lets take a look at the options for getting rid of different bladder stones.
Struvite
Struvite stones (also called magnesium ammonium phosphate) are quite common in dogs and can usually be dissolved with food or medicine. Antibiotics are also necessary, because struvite stones in dogs are almost always associated with bacterial infections in the bladder.
Dissolving stones takes anywhere from a few weeks to several months, depending on their size and other factors. Surgery and other methods of physical removal can be considered if necessary.
Diets used to dissolve struvite stones have the following characteristics:
Reduced levels of protein, magnesium, and phosphorus
Increased levels of salt
Creates acidic urine (urine with a lower pH than normal)
Good options include:
Calcium oxalate
Calcium oxalate is another common type of bladder stone in dogs. Unfortunately, there is no way to dissolve calcium oxalate stones, so they have to be removed via surgery, lithotripsy, or urohydropropulsion.
Cystine
Cystine stones are not as common in dogs as struvite and calcium oxalate stones. They can usually be dissolved with the right kind of food. Appropriate diets have the following characteristics:
Reduced levels of protein
Low sodium
Low levels of the amino acids cystine and methionine, which the body converts to cystine
Create alkaline urine (urine with a higher pH than normal)
Veterinarians usually prescribe these diets to dissolve cystine stones:
Purine
Purine stones can be made of urate or xanthine. Urate stones can be dissolved with food. This is also true for some, but not all, xanthine stones. If food and medicine fail to dissolve the stone, it will need to be removed. Diets used to dissolve purine stones have the following characteristics:
Reduced levels of proteinspecifically proteins that contain a lot of purine, like fish and organ meats
Low sodium
Creates alkaline urine (urine with a higher pH than normal)
Good dog foods to dissolve purine stones include:
Calcium phosphate
Bladder stones made of calcium phosphate are not very common in dogs. Surgical removal of the stones is usually necessary.
Silica
Silica bladder stones are rare in dogs and cannot be dissolved. They must be removed by surgery, lithotripsy, or urohydropropulsion.
How Special Diets Can Prevent Bladder Stones in Dogs
Dogs that develop bladder stones once are at risk for getting them again, but preventive measures are available. Changing dog food is one of the most effective ways of preventing bladder stones. This is because to a large degree, a dogs diet determines what ends up in their urine. By feeding a special food, pet parents can reduce the building blocks needed to create bladder stones.
Struvite
Struvite stones are a partial exception to the rule because they are almost always caused by bacterial infections. Therefore, the best way to prevent the return of struvite stones is to focus on preventing bladder infections.
A long-term diet change is not always necessary, but ensuring that the urine remains dilute and slightly acidic can help. A veterinarian may recommend these foods to help prevent the return of struvite stones:
Calcium oxalate
While changing a dogs diet wont get rid of calcium oxalate stones, therapeutic foods can help prevent their return. An appropriate nutrient profile for calcium oxalate stone prevention:
Diets that meet these criteria include:
Cystine
The dietary parameters used to dissolve cystine stoneslow protein (especially those that contain a lot of cystine and methionine), low sodium, and promoting alkaline urinecan also be used for prevention. These are both good options:
Purine
Diets used to dissolve purine stones can also help prevent their return. They should be low in protein; be made without ingredients high in purines (like fish and organ meats); be low in sodium; and produce alkaline urine.
These are common diets for purine stones:
Calcium phosphate
No ideal diet for the prevention of calcium phosphate bladder stones has been identified, but keeping urine dilute and slightly more alkaline than normal can help. For this reason, veterinarians may recommend diets that are typically used to prevent calcium oxalate stones, such as:
Silica
A diet that is high in animal protein and avoids plant-based ingredients that could be high in silica, like corn gluten, is commonly recommended to prevent silica stones. Its also important to increase water consumption to dilute urine and to keep your dogs urine pH slightly alkaline.
The best diet will depend on the specific dogs case, but Hill's Prescription Diet Derm Complete or high-quality, grain-free canned dog foods (with a little extra water added) are often good options. Its also important to prevent dogs from eating soil or drinking water that may be high in silica, which may be associated with volcanic areas.
Homemade Dog Food for Bladder Stones
No discussion about what to feed dogs is complete without talking about home-cooked foods.
It is difficult enough to put together a nutritionally complete and balanced, homemade dog food that is safe to feed long-term to a healthy dog. Adding bladder stones to the mix makes it even harder, since you need to achieve specific parameters in the urine.
If youre interested in feeding home-cooked food for bladder stones, work with a veterinary nutritionist who is familiar with your dogs case. Feeding the wrong homemade dog food could make your dogs condition worse.
How Much Water Should Dogs Prone to Bladder Stones Drink?
When it comes to bladder stones, keeping dogs well-hydrated (or even slightly overhydrated) is important. Dehydration makes a dogs urine very concentrated, increasing the risk that crystals and stones will form. Conversely, bladder stones are less likely to form in very dilute urine (urine with a lot of water in it) because the substances that form them will stay dissolved.
The best way to keep your dogs urine dilute is to feed wet dog food, add a little extra water to it, and make sure your dog always has access to bowls of fresh, clean water. It is possible to add water to dry food, but you would have to add a lot, often several cups, to reach the levels found in canned food. This can make it hard for some dogs to eat enough to meet their other nutritional needs.
Measuring a dogs water intake is difficult, and their needs will vary depending on their activity level, the outside temperature, and other factors. An easier way to check if your dog is taking in enough water is to regularly monitor their urine specific gravity (USG).
A dogs USG goes up when they are dehydrated. Trying to keep your dogs USG under 1.020 is a good goal for preventing bladder stones. Your veterinarian can recommend a refractometer to measure your dogs USG at home, or they can run a quick and inexpensive USG check if you drop off a urine sample.
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WRITTEN BY
Jennifer Coates, DVMVeterinarian
Dr. Jennifer Coates is an accomplished veterinarian, writer, editor, and consultant with years of experience in the fields of veterinary...
